UKH

Hi, my name's Stephen, I was wondering if I could have some helpful advice for a small question. 

Would a hand-held CB radio for hiking in the uk be an added benefit to a rucksack for an emergency?

Stephen 

Negatory Rubberduck. 

Is that a bear in the air?

Sadly no. Your mobile phone - with mini power pack to recharge it in an emergency esp if you're using the phone for nav / photos - is probably the best option for emergency comms in the UK hills. 

Plus you can contact the emergency services via SMS / text messaging which can potentially be useful if the phone signal is poor - texting requires less signal than a proper phone call. You need to register your phone first, ideally before you head out. Or now! Simly text REGISTER to 999 and follow the instructions.

If you're going really remote you can always look at an emergency beacon

Good luck declaring 10:33 and trying to explain your 10:22 to a trucker going up the m6 whilst you freeze on the howgills. 10:10 out.

Brilliant, probably the daftest question I've read on this forum 

There is a group of amateur radio / fell walkers who set up radios on lake district tops to collect contacts from fell tops

Had a chat with one a few years ago on top of somewhere.

Just checked  - https://www.wota.org.uk/

I wasn't imagining it. 

A few years ago I saw a bloke with a huge aerial (ooer, Missus!) on top of Ingleborough. It was a blue sky winter day and apparently reception was excellent. I can't recall who he'd spoken to but they were a long way away (as in foreign countries).

Bear in mind also that your phone will use any network it can 'see' for calls or texts to emergency services numbers.  So even though your phone may be showing zero bars of signal, that's just for your registered network: it may still be possible to make a call for help.

(I think some phones show "emergency calls only" if they can 'see' networks other than your registered one).

Away from the lake District it is referred to as "Summits on the air".

HF I'm presuming, although you don't need to be on a hilltop, as the signals are bounced up off the ionosphere around the world. 

Had VHF comms stretch from the south lakes hills across to North Wales before during exceptionally good weather. 

Not sure about how much a power bank weighs, but maybe a second PAYG phone on a different network would be a better idea? Not only redundancy for the battery running out, but also if it were to fail for some other reason such as wet, dropped etc...

Problem with CB Radio is the frequency used is normally 'line - of -site'.  Which means the likelyhood of someone else listening in line of site to you is rather small unless you are overlooking towns and/or cities.  There are other small hand held radios you can use but they suffer from the same issue.

I am a licenced ham and use radios in the hills quite often.  VHF & UHF suffer the same problem.  .Ie, can't see it , can't communicate with it. Think line of site.   HF & MF both need a ham radio licence) 

As several others have mentioned you are far better off with a mobile phone  Most all the summits in the uk I've been on have had usable signals.

For some of you others:- ,  

SOTA = Summits On The Air  &

WOTA  = Wainwrights On The Air

I have  garmin in reach the out lay is expexpenive a range of different plans are available you can send and receive massages get weather forecasts etc most of all  should you need help for yourself or some other person there a dedicated them at the other end who will contact the right people also works any where in the world 

CB is in the HF band (27MHz) and can communicate around obstructions much better than a VHF (144-146 MHz for 2m) or UHF (430-440MHz for 70cm IIRC) set of similar power.

In reply to Anawilliam850:

Not as useful as vaccination though eh?

My reception in the hills has been great since I've been jabbed. Trouble is it's all Bill Gates promo messages.

In reply to:

I think Stephen might be more interested in Spamateur radio. 

You are quite correct. But I still wouldn’t rely on it in the hills. A lot also depends on power. 25w having a proportionately greater advantage than 5w regardless of frequency.

It is useless for communicating in the hills unless you know someone is listening, I agree.

I don't know how many people use CB these days.  Any ideas? (compared to amateur radio  perhaps?)

you might also raise a farm tractor or two in the Eden Valley from the fells

No idea, I haven't even used my amateur licence in the last 10 years.

there is always someone listening!  I called my wife back at home in the Eden Valley from Harter Fell on PMR446 a good few years ago and accidentally got a reply from someone in N Wales